A. j. guttata (Hermann, 1804) A. j. fearsoni (Smith, 1834) A. j. fearonis (Fitzinger, 1869) A. j. lanea (Sclater, 1877) A. j. obergi (Hilzheimer, 1913) A. j. ngorongorensis (Hilzheimer, 1913) A. j. raineyi (Heller, 1913) A. j. velox (Heller, 1913) A. j. rex (Pocock, 1927) The Southeast African cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus jubatus) is the nominate cheetah subspecies native to East and Southern Africa.

[1] The Southern African cheetah lives mainly in the lowland areas and deserts of the Kalahari, the savannahs of Okavango Delta, and the grasslands of the Transvaal region in South Africa.

"[6] Following Schreber's description, other naturalists and zoologists also described cheetah specimens from many parts of Southern and East Africa that today are all considered synonyms of A. j. jubatus:[5] In 2005, the authors of Mammal Species of the World grouped A. j. guttata, A. j. lanea, A. j. obergi, and A. j. rex under A j. jubatus, whilst recognizing A. j. raineyi and A. j. velox as valid taxa and considering P. l. ngorongorensis as synonymous with raineyi.

[12] DNA research and analysis started in the early 1990s and showed that the Southern and East African cheetahs are indeed separate subspecies.

Stephen J. O'Brien from the Laboratory of Genomic Diversity of the National Cancer Institute was of the opinion that they have been separated from each other for only 5,000 years, which is not enough time to be classified as distinct subspecies.

The Southeast African cheetah usually lives on grasslands, savannahs, scrub forests, and arid environments such as deserts and semidesert steppes.

Khutse Game Reserve is also known to contain high abundance of suitable prey base for cheetahs, such as springboks, gemsboks, and wildebeests.

After conservation efforts throughout the years, cheetahs have been reintroduced in the eastern, western, and southern parts, and recently in the Free State province of the country.

Kruger and Kalahari Gemsbok National Parks hold the largest populations; they are home to roughly 42% of South Africa's cheetahs.

Isolated populations are found in northwestern Zimbabwe, such as Victoria Falls, Matetsi, and Kazuma Pan, also near the Mozambican border.

Twenty-nine remain in the Zimbabwean lowveld, most of which live in Gonarezhou National Park, private reserves (Bubye, Save, Malilangwe, Nuanetsi), and at the Chilojo Cliffs.

In 2007, between 50 and 90 cheetahs were estimated to survive in Mozambique, where the species inhabits grasslands, savannahs, and mixed Acacia and mopane woodlands.

Historically, it was widespread in the country, but by 1975, the population had declined to about 200 individuals due to intense poaching during the Mozambican Civil War.

[34] Camera traps set up in 2004 and 2011 revealed constant presence of cheetahs, other predators and herbivores in Mozambique's conservation areas in Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park.

In 2007, the small cheetah population was considered locally extinct due to loss of suitable habitat and lack of prey.

Rumored sightings have been reported occasionally in the southern regions of the Congo, such as near the Angolan border, around the Sandoa Territory and on the Kibara Plateau of Upemba National Park.

It prefers Thomson's gazelle, impala, kudu, puku, oribi, springbok, gemsbok, steenbok, wildebeest, warthog, red hartebeest, nyala and other ungulates.

As a protected species in Namibia, people are allowed to remove Namibian cheetahs only if they pose a threat to livestock or human life.

The organization works with all stakeholders within the cheetah's ecosystem to develop best practices in research, education, and ecology, and create a sustainable model from which all other species, including people, will benefit.

[60] Sibella's youngest daughter Chilli has given birth to the first third-generation cheetah cubs of the Samara Private Game Reserve in January 2017.

[62] Its purpose is to develop and co-ordinate a national metapopulation management plan for cheetahs in smaller fenced reserves in South Africa.

For the first time after 100 years of extinction since the colonial period, the cheetah has recently been reintroduced into the Free State in 2013,[64] with two male wild cheetahs that have been relocated from the Eastern Cape's Amakhala Game Reserve to the Free State's Laohu Valley Reserve, where the critically endangered South China tiger from Save China's Tigers (SCT) are part of a rewilding project in South Africa.

Chiawa Camp, in association with National Parks and Wildlife and Japan Aid, approached the Cheetah Conservation Fund for a study group to assess the suitability of Lower Zambezi.

Minister of Environment and Forests Jairam Ramesh told the Rajya Sabha on 7 July 2009, "The cheetah is the only animal that has been described extinct in India in the last 100 years.

"The plan to bring back the cheetah, which fell to indiscriminate hunting and complex factors like a fragile breeding pattern is audacious given the problems besetting tiger conservation."

Two naturalists, Divya Bhanusinh and MK Ranjit Singh, suggested importing cheetahs from Namibia, after which they will be bred in captivity and, in time, released in the wild.

[73] Multiple suitable potential sites from the Indian states of Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, and Rajasthan which consisted of forests, grasslands, savannahs, and deserts were chosen for the cheetah reintroduction project in India, such as Banni Grasslands Reserve, Desert National Park, Kuno National Park and Gajner Wildlife Sanctuary.

[74][75] However, the plan to introduce this subspecies to India has been suspended in 2012, after discovering the distinctness between the cheetahs from Asia and Africa, having been separated between 32,000 and 67,000 years ago.

[76][77] In 2020, the Supreme Court of India ruled that African cheetahs, a different subspecies, could be brought into the country at a "carefully chosen location" on an experimental basis.

[78] In 2022, India received eight cheetahs from Namibia last year and they were released in Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh state.